Parma just earned promotion into Serie B and announced Chinese investors have bought 60 per cent of the club, with Hernan Crespo becoming Vice-President.

The Ducali went bankrupt in 2015 and had to begin again in Serie D, the lowest level in professional Italian football, but won the play-offs to climb back into Serie B last week.

Today it was announced that Chinese group Desport and President Jiang Lizhang have bought 60 per cent of the club shares.

Former Parma star Crespo has also been appointed Vice-President, but 10 per cent remains in the hands of the supporters.

“When you go to a more competitive level of professional football, we think that there has to be a majority shareholder that can act in a few moments,” explained Vice-President Marco Ferrari.

“We had a series of positive meetings with Chinese investor Jiang Lizhang, who is very well known in his country and President of Desport, who work in TV rights relating to sport and already has connections in football and NBA.

“He is a serious and reliable figure who is eager to invest in Parma, as the club has a certain appeal in the Asian markets from the 1990s.”